35 migrants found in a truck bound for UP in Bhayandar

Driver booked, migrants counselled and sent back with information about the rules in-place by the govt for their legal and safe home bound journey to ensure protection against the coronavirus pandemic

With restless workers desperate to return to their hometowns, screening and social distancing have apparently taken a back seat as hunger and unemployment is turning out to be a greater threat than the deadly coronavirus. This became evident after the Thane (rural) police intercepted and impounded a goods delivery truck in Bhayandar which was caught ferrying 35 migrant workers to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh in an illegal manner amid the nationwide lockdown late on Sunday night.

On their regular patrolling duty, a team led PSI Chitra Madvi and personnel-Sridhar Auti intercepted the truck and found the migrant workers crammed inside it, defying rules of social distancing while putting themselves and others at risk. All the occupants who are said natives of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh stayed in Jai Amber Nagar- a sprawling slum cluster near the railway station in Bhayandar (West).

“They were counselled and sent back with information about the protocol and guidelines which had been framed by the government for a safe passage to their respective hometowns and villages in controlled conditions to ensure their protection against the pandemic.” said an officer.

Meanwhile, the truck was impounded and the driver who was identified as Shravan Rambali Yadav (35) was booked under the relevant sections of the IPC, Motor Vehicle Act, Disaster Management Act and also the stringent Epidemic Act. Further investigations were underway. Notably, the massive exodus of migrants has choked various borders of the state.